Messages

I agree with Ali that one has to broaden the definition a bit. It stands to reason that the adventure genre have evolved, as have most other genres. Frequently the genres borrow from each other. There were action sequences in Sierra and Lucasarts adventures, too.

I believe that some changes in distribution and gameplay were better suited to other genres than adventure games, and it took some time to catch up. Shareware seemed more popular with games with defined levels, where you could play the first levels for free, then pay for the whole game. Casual mobile games, like hidden object games, have embraced this by now. Also online multiplayer doesn't translate easily for adventure games, at least not without incorporating combat, quests or roleplaying.

On the other hand, I would argue that it is common today that even games not remotely adventures have borrowed the cut scene story telling technique, be it a shooter or a Mario game, you are treated to movie clips telling the story between levels. So the influence works both ways.

In recent years, the Escape Room games have become very popular. Those are definitely adventure games, but often with huge amounts of moon logic and little or no story.

[The Distant Door]

Here's my thoughts this month.

The Distant Door

Spoiler

The rpg style graphics are not my favourite style, but they work and fits the mood of the game. The writing is good, and the feel of both endings is that this may happen. The puzzles are mostly a result of having a realistic approach to inventory items instead of piling up everything that is not nailed down. As realism is a point in this story, I felt this choice worked well. Also nice voice acting.

[close]

The long August longing

Spoiler

Simply gorgeous looking, with easy, yet clever puzzles. The story is humorous, creating an intended clash between horror mood and comedy.

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I haven't decided who to vote for yet! But I will cast a vote. It is difficult because

Spoiler

The games outshine each other in different categories. TLAL has far better graphics and puzzles, while TDD has the best character development/story and more emotional impact. It's also a case of apples and oranges to compare a comedic piece with a tear-jerker type slice of life story that invites to afterthought.

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Please keep the different versions available on your game page! I recently played the first point and click game and liked it a lot. I like seeing different takes on the same material.

The recent retelling is chronological, while the old game jumped back and forth in the timeline. While I understand that may be confusing, I thought it worked very well. I need to check out the first comic version, too.    I prefer your hand drawn graphics (you are a graphic novel artist, after all), but it's cool that you venture into different styles and try out different tools and software.

By the way, is the RPG Maker style Dread game translated to English, or is only French available?

Uhm, I just posted my game twice. Anyone can block/delete the latest entry?

Done.

The reason I did, was that after posting I got this error msg:

The file (/var/www/adventuregamestudio.co.uk/public_html/includes/gamesrss.xml) is not writable.

Game added! Redirecting in three seconds.

And then I reloaded the page...which resulted in a posting double.

I got the same error message when I disabled the entry.

Now that I´m here, how do I find the forum thread number? The url doesn't show it anymore.

I think we need the help of @AGA with that and the mysterious error message.

@Snarky, have you tried using the rubber chicken on the lockbox?

That's what she said.

_{Sorry everyone. I promise this won't become a habit.}

I guess that calls for a Frank Zappa song quote. In Italian.
Devi usare un pollo
Se me la vuoi misurar

I'm still looking for the keys to my lockbox, though. The problem is that I hid them somewhere clever, and I have no idea where that might be.

There is only one way to find them. Give up. Buy another lockbox. Put the keys in a good spot. The keys to your old lockbox is already there. 

I liked this approach to making a game. The story and the characters stay in the centre of the gameplay, and the small hindrances along the way really only reflects how we would handle our inventories in real life. You wouldn't normally walk around with a bunch of random items, hoping they become useful.

The game looks good, sounds right, and the voice acting is well done, too. The lack of real puzzles seems like a design choice and shouldn't turn people away from giving this a go.

Congratulations on making your first game! You seem to have learned a lot about using the editor by making this, as it runs flawlessly. Like the others, I'll compliment your voice acting. The two Rogers had different voices and it was easy to distinguish between them. I also appreciate the coffee humour.

Hope to see many more games from you! Curious to how it will look if you make your own graphics.

I played this now and echo the sentiments of the others who have posted. This is a great game! 

Starting off, graphics. Frankly, I've never cared for CGA, but boy, does this look good. Paired with a sort of dynamic musical score and nice use of silhuettes for the characters, the visuals and audio is top notch. You basically had me from the drum track mimicking train sounds on the title page.

You weave in a fun story and allude to a larger world involving these two enemies, and you make this impression so well that I want more stories from this world. Less is more, indeed.

But what sells it, is the puzzles. The timed puzzles, which I usually don't like, feel natural in the circumstances, and the solutions, while hard, are logical and fair.

Congratulations on the release. Highly recommended to players who want a challenge.

Sorry, but I don't think this is a good approach. First of all, if the player can lose the drink, this check will no longer work as intended. Granted, if they cannot lose the drink before leaving the area with the machine forever, this will work, but this is error prone in general and should be avoided.

I thought more in the vein of making sure that the player had only one drink at a time, which could open up for using the drink in multiple ways: drinking it, spilling it, giving it to the wrong person, etc. But  I think I didn't consider the stuck coin in all that, so I agree.

I always try to mimic real life:

(snip)

I'm also not too fond of using the inventory as a substitute for variables, tbh.

I think the logic of a npc having iKnowledge in their inventory is flawless.  It's certainly easier for some beginners (like myself) than integers. But anyone more serious about learning coding is better off by taking Khris' advice than my own.

I guess I'd then have to set CoininMachine back to false somewhere afterwards? So that the player can't repeatedly push the machine and get the drink added again.

You could add another if statement to the top of your code to check if the player already has the drink. Then make the reply "I already got a drink". Check for the drink before you check for the coin. (You can solve this in multiple ways, depending on what player response you want.)

[nothungry]

Another small trick in the same vein is that you may give the npc items that only work as bools, like calling an inventory item nothungry or scared, then check for them in the manner described above. With an if statement you may then use this to trigger an action, make a dialogue line visible or something like that. (This is a more roundabout way of doing what Khris explained.)

On Les' Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@maelstromobscura1575/videos there are walkthroughs/game videos from several of the unreleased chapters: New World Order, Antarctica and Yeti.

@heltenjon you don't happen to have any build of his unfinished masterpiece?  Would be fun to see his best effort!

Sadly, no. He was looking for testers back in spring 2022, but given the game's size of nearly 6 Gb, if I recall correctly, it was hard to get people. I told him I could do it, but not quickly, and he responded that he was doing some self testing. I never got a download link.

Case 1 is in the database, though. https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2372-maelstrom-obscura-case-1/

If someone should have the entire thing, I would perhaps think @Adeel could be a better guess, listed as assistant scripter on the Maelstrom Obscura page. But I don't know how updated that page was.

The links from the games pages should work now. 

Unfortunately, I think there have been problems with the search functionality for some time.

@Mike the Wino , You can find the games here: https://grundislav.itch.io/

[Maelstrom Obscura]

When I started using the AGS pages, it was partly because they provide a huge supply of relatively short games, as I had little time for playing full length titles. And the heart and soul of it all was the MAGS contests. (In my mind, they still are, even with dwindling participation.) Even now, I may find an old MAGs thread, download the games and see what different people got out of a theme. MAGS games thus was my way of finding Slasher's games.

I was always amazed by this non-stop game making machine. He would be finished in half the time, and fix errors if we players found them before the deadline.  Looking back, there are dozens of shortcuts made: re-use of character graphics, or simply recoloring their clothes, ripped music or backgrounds, anything to get the job done. What was so amazing is that he made use of almost every conceivable genre. There would be mystery games, science fiction stories, horror, musicals, board games, love stories, westerns, action games, driving games and so on. And always with a quirky sense of humour. Among my favourites are Stuck on you (the one where you have to get rid of a wig glued to your head), The Rat Pack do Cheesy Castle (which may not be the greatest game, but those rats singing about cheese always put me in a good mood), and Deep Space Mission: Are We Alone? (the upcoming pick of the month and an impressive full length game in its own right).

I volunteered to do some voice work on his unfinished epic Maelstrom Obscura, and he basically taught me how to use sound programs, make ogg files and do voice work. Even though my Helicopter Pilot voice work probably never will be heard, I've made use of this for my own games and when making voice work for others.

Here's to you, Les. I will do my best to play and comment on all of your games in the database. I dread the day when I have played them all and know there will be no further games from you on this plane.

I hope the site will be up again soon. Meanwhile, if you tried to download the Pick of the Month, you can find it here: https://archive.org/details/adventuregamestudio?tab=collection&query=ben+jordan

I second the choice. I played this yesterday and was really impressed by how good a game it is.